Gluten Free (or not)
Make this early in the day so it can cool before eating.
Adapted from the recipe Gail’s class at Peninsula School used for their annual pumpkin pie sale.
Ingredients
- 1 (one) 9-inch gluten free pie crust, or you can use a gluten-ous one. Pumpkin pie does not work well with a nut crust; this one really needs the grain dough.
- 2 cups cooked, mashed sugar pie pumpkin, or use a 16-oz can if you don’t have fresh
- 1 (one) 12-ounce can evaporated milk. It’s OK to substitute whipping cream – result is a little softer and richer than normal, and very yummy. To make this recipe parve, the best is evaporated coconut milk. I made this with Organic Evaporated Coconut Milk by Nature’s Greatest foods for the wedding in April 2023 and it was fantastic.
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar or 1 cup corn sugar to reduce the amount of fructose
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinammon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- note: can substitute 2 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice for above three items
- ½ teaspoon salt
Directions
- If you’re rolling out the pie crust dough, make high sides so it can hold more of the filling. Optional: weight the empty pie crust and bake it for 10 minutes at 325°F. This can help make sure the crust gets cooked, and seems especially important for gluten free pie crusts. Pre-baked or not, have a pie crust in a pan before you go to the next step.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In large bowl, beat all remaining ingredients together until smooth.
- Put a cookie sheet or foil on lower oven rack to catch drips.
- Place pie pan on middle oven rack and gently pour batter in. Try not to let it overflow. If the batter doesn’t all fit, save it for your next pie, but don’t overfill this one.
- Gently slide the oven rack in and bake for 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1″ from edge comes out clean.
- Cool pie on wire rack at least 1 ½ hours.
Hint for using gluten free pre-made pie crusts, or any pie crust that is too small: prepare a double recipe, and use that to fill 3 pie crusts. Be sure to bake the pie crusts first.
Alternative to middle of step 5: pour remaining mix into an oiled oven-proof dish and bake along side the pie for a tasty pumpkin pudding.
That’s a great idea!
The small amount of extra filling will bake more quickly, so it’s a good idea to check it and take it out when it starts to get firm. I recently baked some extra filling in a custard cup – 40 minutes at 350°F worked well.